Friday, January 9, 2009

Forget Tiger woods, Oprah and Phelps. The Most Powerful Man on the planet can be the highest earner in endorsement if he wishes to do so, of course.Obama loves his blackberry and hates the fact that he will have to abandon the phone after he assumes the office.

Ny Times reports that What could the “BlackBerry president” charge for his plugs of the device if he were not a public servant? More than $25 million, marketing experts say, and maybe as much as $50 million.

Inevitably, perhaps, marketing executives dream about creating an ad featuring the president-elect, something Gene Liebel, a partner in the Brooklyn agency Huge, said would be a “fantasy assignment.”

Asked what tagline he might use for the campaign, Mr. Liebel repeated one his employees had thought up: “If Blagojevich can pick my replacement, I can pick my device.”

R. Vann Graves, the chief creative officer of the UniWorld Group, suggested a campaign showing Mr. Obama in the Oval Office. “In the foreground, you have the desk, but instead of having the proverbial red phone, you have a red BlackBerry,” Mr. Graves said, with the tagline “Shot Caller.”

Matt Reinhard, the executive creative director of DDB Los Angeles, suggested Apple try to steal Mr. Obama away from BlackBerry as a spokesman for the iPhone.

The message could be, “It’s time for change,” Mr. Reinhard said.

Wow!! I think he would be the only politician in recent times who commands as much respect and fan-following as any celeb. Maybe it is because the way he branded himself as the People's Choice and showed his aptitude for tech. Can you tell me whether there is any other politician who commands this kind of respect?